Week 5 Recap

ETS Senior John “Yeahyung” Kim stepped onto the court Friday night to fanfare. The 5’8” hodge-podge, “round mound of rebound” graduating senior was seen reveling in the stage of his final regular season game. He would lace up his beat up Adidas one last time, for one last game here with TGBL, here with the Grove. Going winless for the second consecutive year was not an option for Kim, even as he bore the burden of captaining a team into a war against Goon Squad who, with resident goons Howard Rim and Jowee Min, was highly reminiscent of the fictional basketball team, the MONSTARS, in the 1990’s cult-classic, Space Jam.

Even with Goon Squad looking more physically imposing and professional than the Magic School Bus’s more playful green and yellow color scheme, there was no doubt who came out with more fire that fateful Friday Night. Senior point guard Dan Ahn displayed an unnecessarily, dizzying set of ball-handling skills as he commandeered enemy defenses while driving effortlessly to the hoop. Junior Whitman major Zion “In A Relationship” Hwang also chipped in with “questionable” defensive maneuvers that did a great deal to stymie a Goon Squad offense that had won two straight. And on a night that had seemed to go just right for Magic School Bus, things continued in this way until game point, when Senior John Kim had the ball on the top of the key.

(We take you now to the color commentary of the game as it happened.)

John Kim gets the ball at the top of the key. He pumpfakes once. Goes up for the shot.

The ball goes off the glass and IT’S GOOOOOOODDDDD! Magic School Bus has just won the game in SPECTACULAR fashion. I cannot believe what I have just seen. The Grove fans are going bananas. School Bus Wins. School Bus Wins!

…………………

Wait one second. It seems that Senior John Kim actually called a foul in mid-release. The basket will not count. I repeat. The basket will not count. To the dismay of the 40 some-odd people watching here today, John Kim called foul, Jowee Min went on to hit another game-winning three and Magic School Bus lost the game.

And just like that, an agonizing TGBL season takes down another Grove Legend. Farewell John Kim. We hope to see you resilient come playoff time.

Player of the game: Joy Min: 7pts. 8 rebounds. 2 steals. All in dramatically cocky fashion.

X Factor: Kevin Lee. 3pts. 7 rebounds. 2 steals. All-around good guy.

Game 2: Flightz v. Footfire

The night prior to TGBL Friday, David JJ Kim had trouble sleeping. He would toss and turn in the corner of his four-person suite at Brewster Hall, located on 401 Van Buren St., pleading to God, asking why he was in so much pain. It turns out that David had been bitten by a spider earlier that night. He had walked away from the encounter to live to tell the tale, but not without a nasty welt, swelling up with every passing minute, with every turn of his body.

A discouraged JJ awoke to find that the welt was not simply an unpleasant dream. It lay above his third rib on the right side pulsating with furious anger. JJ was immobilized; unable to go to class, David rested. He rested until Friday Night. He rested so he could face Wilson Pak and his Cuse Flightz.

Wilson Pak was in midseason form. Showing that he can dominate in every facet of the game, Pak went into triple-double mode dishing out 5 assists, gathering 10 rebounds, while hitting 4 points. With the majority of his assists and coaching going to the two freshman studs in Kevin Kim, who finally eked out a big game, and Christian Lee, Flightz looked as unstoppable as the very first time they rocked those royal purple jerseys at the beginning of Week 2.

But all of a sudden things changed. There was a palpable intensity in the air, a darkness untapped by man before. This was when David “JJ” Kim of Bergen County NJ basically said to the whole damn world, “I’m Spiderman.” Showing uncanny reflexes, JJ began to grab rebounds and fire threes at will. Coasting down the wings of the Flightz defense, JJ Kim flew higher than any 220lb. man ever should. His three-point shot was simply unstoppable and JJ Kim showcased new powers that took the 3 game into new heights. Every time Flightz grabbed a lead, JJ struck, swinging from court to court, unafraid of Wilson and his Flightz.

But alas, Wilson’s tutelage and triple-double prowess overcame JJ’s singlehanded effort to bring Footfire back from deficit. The combined effective play of Christian Lee, Kevin Kim, and Joshua Lee were just too much. As the game ended, Josh Lee shook the hand of a defeated JJ Kim and bid goodnight to the friendly, neighborhood, Spiderman. TGBL is hoping he might come back come playoff time.

Player of the Game: David JJ Kim 9pts. 2 rebounds. 1 assist. The greatest threepoint showing in TGBL history.

X-Factor: Kevin Kim and Christian Lee Combined 10 points 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Flightz needs its freshman duo to finish everything Wilson gives them if they are to make a run at the ‘ship.